Would it be better to teach our 11 year olds English & Maths

Unfortunately it's not 1956 anymore, where you'd would be sick with worry if the bus conductor carried out her threat to tell the headmaster that you'd said 'bugger' on the school bus. School kids are full of swearing in everyday life now, on the street, in front of the elderly, in front of their patents, grand parents etc.

So yes, they do need to discus when it's appropriate, it might make them think for once. After all it's not as if the words are new to them, is it...?

Asking the children to grade the words & appropriate usage would perhaps lead to a reduction of foul language in school,but only by those who actually understood the reasoning behind this lesson.The parent in the article spouting "I don't swear in front of my children..." cannot possibly be so naive to think this has any bearing on whether their child hears swearing.I recall hearing children approximately 4yrs old swearing about 35yrs ago,and many other occasions upto present day have heard youngsters turn the air blue.I don't particularly like hearing youngsters swear but there's nothing I can do to stop it.

Maybe the school was trying to tackle a problem head on and make the children think for a change. It just puts in writing a conversation that parents should be having with their own. Many kids these days do not realise that some words are offensive to others (or even know their meaning) - it's no good just telling them not to swear when they don't know what the swear words are. I remember my 4 year old asking me why his grandma had told him off for saying 'sod off' to another small child (that was in 1979)

When I was growing up I never heard my father say more than "damn" or "blast" in front of his family and I followed his example - yet at school I used the whole range of swear words from mild to downright obscene.

It was when I was 18 years old and I was able to play darts with my father in his local pub that I heard him use the f word as he missed double top and it reinforced to me that in some situations it was OK to use words like that and in other situations it wasn't.

That lesson was emphasised to me at school when, quoting from a J B Priestley book that we were reviewing (it was about a soldier coming home from the war), I quoted the word "bugger" that the soldier had spoken. I was hauled in front of the headmaster and threatened with expulsion if I ever did such a thing again.

Even in extreme circumstances I have never used the f word, or worse, in front of my wife or daughter, yet with male friends and my grown up son that is not the case.

So my view is that the school should only be emphasising what the parents should be teaching at home, that is that swearing obscenities is acceptable in some social situations but not in all and swear words should be restricted as a common courtesy. Am I a prude?